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March11th, 2024 Len’s Political Note #628 Maurice Green North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction
2024 General Election
On March 7th I completed my note about the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, Rachel Hunt, saying: “This does not quite conclude a series on candidates for office in North Carolina. I will encourage support for some candidates running for the North Carolina legislature. But at another time.”
The time has come – but not for the legislature. North Carolina Republicans have nominated an extremist for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
North Carolina public schools need transforming. The schools have been in trouble for some time. Teachers leave the state for neighboring states because North Carolina’s pay is awful (4th lowest in the country according to a 2023 study). Other financial support for the North Carolina schools is not great either. The upset primary victory of a radical right, home schooling activist against the sitting Republican Superintendent does not promise to transform the North Carolina public schools in a direction that the children of North Carolina need.
The North Carolina Republican Party’s nomination of Michelle Morrow for Superintendent of Public Instruction is both a shock to the system and what you might expect, The Charlotte Observer, commenting on Morrow’s 52% — 48% victory over the Republican incumbent said Morrow brings a new level of extremism to the Republican ticket, a ticket that is “Top to bottom, ….. the most extreme Republican ticket in North Carolina history.”
Michelle Morrow claims the public schools in North Carolina push “social, political, and sexual” agendas. When she ran for her local school board in 2022, she described public schools as “socialism centers” and “Indoctrination centers.” She urged people to choose not to send their children to public schools.
Morrow says she understands some people need public schools. To keep those children safe, she intends to remove from classrooms what most educators would see as imagined, nonexistent dangers – Critical Race Theory and pornography. She would protect schools and children by arming teachers. Teachers, she says, should not be responsible for providing safety for children, but they should have the right to carry a concealed hand gun. She further explains, there is no reason why a classroom full of children would know their teacher had a gun in the locked bottom drawer of her desk.
Where does Morrow come from? Born in New Hampshire, she moved with her family to Charlotte from Upstate New York. After completing high school in Charlotte, she got a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from the University of North Carolina. She has worked as a nurse in Texas, Colorado, and in North Carolina. She met her husband while serving as a missionary to Mexico.
Back in North Carolina, when Morrow ran for her local school board, she came in 2nd of 3 candidates. She was a regular school board attendee pointing out where she saw Critical Race Theory and pornography. She claims the Republican State Superintendent who she defeated in the primary pushed CRT for disabled preschoolers, urged sex surveys for children without parental approval, allowed pedophiles to retain their teaching licenses, and wasted money.
Mo Green won the Democratic primary. He has a BA and a law degree from Duke. After two clerkships and a stint in private practice, he became general counsel for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District. He fit right in and became deputy superintendent. Mo Green moved on to become Superintendent of the Guilford School System and then Executive Director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. The foundation has been described as a catalyst for positive change in North Carolina for more than 80 years; as having invested more than $600 million in the state.
Mo Green was a successful superintendent in Guilford. The district reports
- A graduation rate of nearly 90% when he left, roughly a 12% increase from when he came to the district
- A decrease in the graduation rate gap between white students and Black students
- Improvement in the ACT college entrance exam.
In his second four-year plan, he focused on character issues in addition to academic success. He was successful in building relationships with students, faculty, staff, and board members. One board member cried when Mo Green announced he was leaving to take the Foundation position. She said she had voted against hiring him because of his limited experience in education and she had been wrong in that vote.
Running for State School Superintendent, Mo Green and the rest of the North Carolina slate of Democrats are taking on a national problem – Republicans have lost faith in American institutions. They have a vision that would destroy those institutions. Their plans to replace those institutions are sometimes unclear and sometimes downright dangerous.
Michelle Morrow’s campaign Superintendent Public Instruction was not taken seriously – by the press or by her primary opponent. She raised less than $40,000 before the primary. Now that she is the nominee, outside organizations will almost certainly come to her aid. Mo Green can fend off those outsiders. He raised more than $300,000 for his campaign. He’ll need more. DONATE TO MO GREEN. Donate to the other North Carolina nominees as well. Help the North Carolina Democrats carry the entire slate.
North Carolina races to support
Governor
Attorney General Josh Stein is the overwhelming favorite to be the Democratic nominee for Governor. Can Democrats keep this as a Democratic office? Josh Stein built law and order credentials by focusing on on-line sexual predators and leading the law suit against the purveyors of opioids. He defeated retired State Supreme court Justice Michael Morgan 70 – 14. His opponent will be Lt. Governor Mark Robinson – so much an extreme right figure, he is both dangerous and hard to take seriously enough for being how dangerous he would be in office. Earlier in February Axios reported that Josh Stein had $11.5 million for his campaign; Mark Robinson had $4.3 million. Keep that lead. DONATE TO JOSH STEIN. See Len’s Political Note #574
Lt. Governor
Rachel Hunt, daughter of a dominant North Carolina governor, came to electoral politics only after the 2016 Clinton loss. She started in the state legislature where she served three terms and promises to focus on children and families, health care and women’s right to health care. She won the Democratic primary defeating State Senator Ben Clark 70 – 16. Her probable opponent led the Republican primary with 20% of the vote and will need to win a runoff. DONATE TO RACHEL HUNT. See Len’s Political Note #627
Please note, The photograph above is a picture of Rachel Hunt. The photograph in Len’s Political Note #627 is of someone else. The mistake is entirely mine.
Attorney General
Congressman Jeff Jackson won a surprisingly close 55 – 33 primary victory over Satana Deberry. The race was close because Republicans advertised on her behalf, believing she would be easier to oppose than Jeff Jackson.
Republican gerrymandering of Congressional seats made then Congressman Jeff Jackson’s seat impossible for a Democrat to win. When he was in Congress, he sought to eliminate poverty by increasing the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid, increasing support for affordable housing, and increasing support for K-12 and college and university education. His Republican opponent is Congressman Dan Bishop. As a State Senator, he led the effort to pass a bill to ensure that public bathrooms were used according to the gender appropriate to the birth gender of the users. Jeff Jackson had $1.8 million for his campaign according to Axios’s report; Dan Bishop had $1.3 million. Help Jeff Jackson stay ahead in the money race and win the election. DONATE TO JEFF JACKSON. See Len’s Political Note #597
Secretary of State
Incumbent Secretary of State Elaine Marshall was unopposed in the primary, In the general election, she will be opposed by county commissioner Chad Brown, a former minor league pitcher and local mayor. He defeated Christine Villaverde for the nomination. She touted her ability to strengthen the fiscal infrastructure for small businesses. Chad Brown, on the other hand, after stressing his conservative values and support for the unborn, began his website with a promise to protect the state’s elections, notwithstanding the fact that the State Board of Elections has that responsibility in North Carolina. DONATE TO ELAINE MARSHALL. See Len’s Political Note #626
Supreme Court Justice
Incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, a former head of an activist civil rights legal organization, was appointed to the Court by Governor Roy Cooper. In her obligatory run for election, she defeated Judge Lora Cubbard 69 – 31 in the primary and is opposed in the general election by Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin. Supporters describe Griffin as having the experience to be the next conservative justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court – a court which currently has 5 Republicans to 2 Democrats. NC Newsline reports that Allison Riggs started 2024 with about $300,000 in campaign funds while Jefferson Griffin had $700,000. DONATE TO ALLISON RIGGS. She needs every dollar you can contribute. See Len’s Political Note #594
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Foundation Executive Director Maurice Green, former School Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, General Counsel, and private attorney, is taking on a tougher and an easier job than he had anticipated in his campaign, Instead of running against an incumbent who leaned pretty far right to attempt to keep her job, he is running against an insurgent extreme right wing home schooling advocate who is actually opposed to public schools. To win the primary, he defeated Katie Eddings 66 – 25, whose campaign website featured pictures of her in military fatigues. Mo Green’s campaign against Republican Michelle Morrow will be more expensive than expected. DONATE TO MO GREEN.
Congress
NC 01
Congressional districts have been so gerrymandered by the legislature, with the support of the 5-2 Republican Supreme Court, that what has been a 7-7 divide in the current Congressional delegation will become 10 or 11 Republicans and 3 or 4 Democrats. The seat that is uncertain is Don Davis’s. An Air Force veteran affiliated with East Carolina University and mayor of his tiny home town, he had $950,000 available for the campaign in the middle of February. His opponent, Laurie Moe Buckhout, retired as a colonel and then founded, built, and sold a strategic consulting group focused on electronic warfare and cybersecurity. In mid-February, she had $300,000 for her campaign. Buckhout will be a formidable opponent in the only swing district remaining in North Carolina. DONATE TO DON DAVIS.
North Carolina State Legislature
North Carolina’s legislature is among the most gerrymandered in the country. In a state which requires a 60% vote to override a veto, the gerrymandered majority in House and Senate is exactly at 60% Republican, allowing the legislature to neutralize an elected Democratic governor. The current Democratic goal is to eliminate the Republican supermajority. I will have recommendations for candidates to support later in the spring
DO NOT FORGET. WE HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TO WIN
Support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
As we look toward November, 2024, Help sustain the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaign. National polls since March 2 include two with Biden leads of one or two points, and two with Trump leads of between 2 and 4 points. Every donation, large or small, makes a difference. Larger donations mean more money for the campaign. But large numbers of small donations are a measure of enthusiasm for the candidate. Make a small donation if you cannot afford a large one. DONATE TO JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/web-bfp-december-2023
#10 in the Stephenson County, IL list of Biden accomplishments: Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket.
